Attendance, Illness and Holidays

Our Attendance Champion is Mrs Reed Deputy Head Teacher 

Please note there are important government changes to fixed penalty notices (fines) for children being absent from school without authorisation. This applies to individual days as well as longer holidays taken in term time. It is effective from August 19th 2024. Please read about these details in the "Holiday" section below.

Carlton Road Academy actively promotes and rewards good attendance, so please make sure your child attends regularly and on time.  The school is open from 8.40am each morning so that children can enter before registration begins at 8.50am. Collection time from outside your child’s classroom is 3.15pm prompt. Our school is open to children 32 hours and 55 minutes each week.

Being in school every day is so important and good school attendance is a big part of our culture at Carlton Road Academy, but why is it so important?

All parents want the best for their children and for them to get on well in life. Having a good education is important to ensure that they have the best opportunities in their adult lives. They only get one chance at school, and your child’s future may be affected by not attending school regularly. If children do not attend school regularly, they may:

· Struggle to keep up with their learning. In a busy school day it is difficult for schools to find the extra time to help a child catch up.

· Miss out on the social side of school life. Poor attendance can affect children’s abilities to make and keep friendships; a vital part of growing up. Have less chance of securing a job when they are adults.

If you or your child are experiencing any issues which may prevent them from having good attendance, please come and speak to us.

View our attendance video here to see how important attendance is.

Dear Parents and Carers,

The Local Education Authority have asked us to share an update on the recent measles outbreak in England. I would like to stress we have NOT had an outbreak at Carlton Road at the point of posting this bulletin, but would ask all of our families to be vigilant at this time.

You can find their advice via the following link.  Parent/Carers Bulletin

The office can provide you with your child's attendance % on request.

Contacting the school if your child is absent

• Please ring the school office on 01205 364674. You may also notify us of any absence on the MyEd application, where you can complete an absence form. You must contact the school on every day of absence.
• If school is not notified of an absence, a member of staff from school will phone to find out why your child is absent.
• If no contact is made with the school,or absence extends over 3 days, please be aware that a home visit may be made by our Attendance team and/or the Trust's Education Welfare Officer.

When might my child need to stay at home?

Sometimes  children are too poorly for school. Most of the time however, unless your child has a fever and or a temperature, sickness or diarrhoea, they are able to attend school. Please be assured should a child attend school and then we can see they become too unwell to manage during the school day, we would make contact with you.

We appreciate that at times it can be tricky for parents to decide whether or not to keep their children off school when they are feeling unwell. To help with this, the government have issued guidelines which stipulate when children should be kept off school and when they shouldn’t.

So, for example if your child has a minor cough or a common cold, the government say that it is fine to send your child to school. However, if your child has a fever/high temperature (38C or more) then you should keep them off school until the symptoms subside and seek medical attention as appropriate - https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/fever-in-children/

The NHS had drawn up a new and helpful guide for schools and parents which covers most childhood ailments and whether a child needs to stay at home should they catch them, if they do, then this guidance explains for how long.

Please find the link below:

Is my child too ill for school? - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Medicines

If your child is prescribed medicine by the doctor then the following rules apply:

• Medicine prescribed 3 times per day WILL NOT be given by staff. Parents can give the prescribed dosage morning, after school and bed time.

• Medicine prescribed 4 times per day WILL be given by a member of the staff but parents will need to complete and sign a form giving permission for this to happen.

For safety reasons, no children should be bringing medicines or tablets to school in their lunch boxes/book bags. All prescribed medicines/tablets need to be taken to the school office at the beginning of the school day and collected from the office at the end of the school day. Generally we would expect a child to have no more than 48 hours off school if they are given medication from the doctor unless absolutely necessary.  Any child suffering from diarrhoea should also be kept off school for 48 hours.

Holidays

As part of our commitment to maintaining high levels of school attendance, we would like to inform you about some important government changes regarding holiday absences and unauthorised leave. These changes align with the Department for Education (DFE) updated guidance on improving school attendance, effective from 19th August 2024 in collaboration with the Local Authority. The changes are outlined in the table below, greater detail is in our recent letter link below.

The academy consistently emphasises the significance of good attendance. We recognise that absences impact not only a pupil’s academic performance, but also their social wellbeing within the school community. The academy closely monitors the attendance of all our learners and communicates with families when concerns arise. Our aim is to continue to work collaboratively with the families to address any issues, and we will provide support and explore solutions together to support all learners to be in school regularly and on time.

A copy of the letter you have already received outlining the DfE changes in full can be read here.

 Should you fail to notify the Academy of an absence, or you choose to take your child out of Academy during term time when the absence has not been approved, or when a decision was still pending, the matter may well be referred to Lincolnshire County Council and a Penalty Notice (a fine is per parent /per child) could be issued for the period of absence. Failure to pay the Fixed Penalty Notice may result in further legal action being taken against you.